10182 results were found.

Reading Is a Leap of Faith

There was a lake, a girl (my friend), some boys (not my friends, but maybe?), and a long, thick rope extending from a tree branch. The kids bobbed in the brown water, waiting for me to summon the courage to swing from that rope and launch myself over their heads.…

Building a Better Life

Arthur C. Brooks has a gift for metaphor. Just as flight attendants tell us to put on our own oxygen mask before helping others with theirs, in order to Build the Life You Want, as his new book (co-authored with Oprah Winfrey) urges, people must develop a sense of happiness…

Authors on Audio: Julie Carr

Director of the Women’s Studies Department and a professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Julie Carr is also author of Mud, Blood, and Ghosts: Populism, Eugenics, and Spiritualism in the American West. University of Houston professor Cristina Rivera Garza calls the book “an outstanding, genre-bending family memoir…Written…

Unstoppable Stories: A Banned-Books Festival

Loyalty is so excited to be the bookstore partner for Unstoppable Stories: A Banned Books Festival, sponsored by the UU Potomac Partnership - Cedar Lane UU, UU Fairfax and River Road UU! Unstoppable Stories: A Banned Books Festival is part of the Teaching Truth Campaign and coincides with the launch…

Child. Craft.

This was the moment everything changed. I remember how the neuropsychologist, whose name I don’t recall, sat across from me and my husband in a nondescript office, the white walls covered with framed diplomas and credentials from top medical schools. I remember the way he shuffled through the sheaf of…

An Alphabetics of the Soul

I was fiddling with a rip in my jeans. The owl-eyed professor, salt-and-pepper haired, stroked his beard, took up his pencil, and scrawled the names of MFA programs on a yellow pad. It was my last semester studying as a University of Maryland creative-writing undergrad. The late poet Stanley Plumly…

A Charm City Champ

Way back in August, when the summer seemed endless, when all I had to worry about was launching my daughter off to her freshman year in college (done, checkmark, delivered to Temple University in Philadelphia), I promised in the inaugural installment of “Small Talk” that I’d use this column to…

Witchy Author Panel: Ava Morgyn

East City Bookshop welcomes Ava Morgyn for a discussion of her book The Witches of Bone Hill. Joining her in conversation is a witchy author panel featuring Lana Harper, Sangu Mandanna, and KJ Dell’Antonia. All copies of The Witches of Bone Hill pre-ordered through the Eventbrite page or through our…

On Poetry: September 2023

Synchronicities frequently catch my attention when it comes to poetry. I notice them when I’m curating “Read Me a Poem,” the American Scholar podcast on which I read a poem each week. Suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world often overlap. But I also see them in several…

The Struggle Is (Faux) Real

As I’ve mentioned before, I watch a lot of webinars about self-publishing. One was recently devoted to artificial intelligence. Depending on who you talk to, AI is either a great intellectual breakthrough or will end life on Earth as we know it. There’s been a lot of chatter about how…

Authors on Audio: Sung-Yoon Lee

A fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Sung-Yoon Lee is also author of The Sister: North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World. Max Boot calls the new book “an incisive portrayal of North Korea’s ‘princess’…[and] a chilling portrait of a family dynasty…

An Interview with Alex Crespo

Born and raised in the Midwest, queer trans author Alex Crespo set his debut YA novel, Saint Juniper’s Folly, in a spooky forest inspired by his own Ohio childhood. Now living in Chicago with his black cat, Hex, Crespo spends his time writing and making art — when he’s not…

Daniel Baer in Conversation with Lissa Muscatine

With today's fraught global and political climate, American hegemony is over and the assumption that America maintains its status as a superpower is no longer a given. The divisions between us, economic changes driven by globalization and technology, climate change, pandemics, and the resurgence of authoritarianism, make it difficult to…

Children’s Book Roundup: September 2023

Masala Chai, Fast and Slow by Rajani LaRocca (author) and Neha Rawat (illustrator) (Candlewick). “Aarav loved his thatha very much, although they were as different as water and molasses. Thatha shuffled. He sauntered. He strolled. Aarav ran. He rushed. He raced.” When Thatha falls and sprains his ankle, Aarav decides…

Wilder

Wilder

Kitty Kelley’s Endless Generosity

Bestselling biographer and all-around excellent literary citizen Kitty Kelley has done it again. Just a few months after her historic donation to Biographers International Organization, Kelley has now given $100,000 to the nonprofit Independent in furtherance of our mission to share a love of reading freely and widely, to support…

Bedtime Stories: Sept. 2023

Mary Louise Kelly: I do a lot of author interviews as host of “All Things Considered,” and it’s one of the things I love about the gig. How crazy fun is it to have a job that allows you to call, say, Stephen King, when he pops out a new…

Authors on Audio: Polly Stewart

An associate professor in the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies at the Virginia Military Institute, longtime writer/essayist Polly Stewart is also the author of two novels, Wild Girls (written as Mary Stewart Atwell) and now The Good Ones. Alex Segura calls the new book “a riveting debut crime…

A Cheuse Salon

Did you know about the Cheuse Center's Busboys and Poets Lecture? Our annual lecture of ideas is delivered by an international literary figure. By producing joint, free programming, Busboys and Poets and the Cheuse Center aim to bring audiences events that impact community, conversation and curiosity across the region. Delicates:…

It’s Time for the Literary Hill BookFest

Grab your fellow bookworms and head to Eastern Market on Sunday, Sept. 17th, for the free, open-to-the-public Literary Hill BookFest! Now in its 12th year, this fall’s festival promises to be the best yet. Spend the afternoon listening to (and learning from) 40 authors, poets, booksellers, publishers, literacy groups, and…

Overcoming “Book Macho”

“Book macho” is a term I coined in college to describe people who fetishize books, stockpiling their shelves with every volume that has ever meant anything to them. Almost everyone I know is afflicted with book macho. As someone who has moved frequently, I have an ambivalent relationship with books.…

Roseanne A. Brown in Conversation with Dhonielle Clayton

Loyalty is so excited to welcome Roseanne A. Brown and Dhonielle Clayton in conversation for an IN-PERSON pub-day event celebrating the release of Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Witchcraft and Mayhem! Join us at Loyalty’s Petworth store for an author discussion and audience Q&A, followed by a meet-and-greet and book-signing! We…

A Patriotic Pick: September 2023

Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by Grateful American™ Book Prize judge John Danielson, founder of Chartwell Education Group and former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education: Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made…

The Beautiful Life Is Empty

Have you ever returned to a favorite book, hoping to revisit an atmosphere you treasured, only to find that something has shifted? The world has changed around the book, and you’ve changed as well. James Salter’s Light Years is, for me, one such novel. I once thought Light Years was…

Angie Kim in Conversation with Lupita Aquino

The Writer’s Center welcomes award-winning author Angie Kim for a reading and discussion of her new novel, Happiness Falls. Moderated by Lupita Aquino. Reception starts at 6 p.m. with prosecco and dumplings; reading and discussion begin at 6:30 p.m. Book sales provided by East City Bookshop. Free and open to…

“And the Banned Played On”

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit my local library to explore a database that would otherwise cost the Independent thousands of dollars to access. I’d made an appointment, and the librarian, Pam, spent 90 minutes orienting me to the site. (If you don’t realize that I’m plugging the…

Our 7 Most Favorable Reviews in August 2023

The Devil’s Playground: A Novel by Craig Russell (Doubleday). Reviewed by Therese Droste. “Scottish writer Craig Russell is a master of his craft. He is as prolific in his writing — having published almost one book every year since 2005 — as he is diligent with the historical details in…

Meet Andie Burke

Join us as we celebrate the release of local author Andie Burke’s debut romance novel, Fly with Me, a sparkling and steamy opposites-attract romance. Andie will discuss the book, answer questions, and sign copies. This event is presented in partnership with Frederick County Public Libraries. Free and open to the…

Our 5 Most Popular Posts: August 2023

Elizabeth J. Moore’s review of Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire & Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernández (W.W. Norton & Company). “These so-called magonistas also spent a great deal of time on the run: In one of the most disquieting parts of this story, the U.S. president, the Departments…

Romance Roundup: September 2023

School has started for my kids and my teacher-husband, and no matter how long I’ve been out of it myself, it still feels like a new beginning. New notebooks, pencils that still have their erasers, the promise of fall weather (eventually, right?)… Ah, it’s a clean slate. This is the…

Poet, Heal Thyself

Loneliness has a grasp that never exceeds its reach. Loneliness has the best speechwriters. It is a living alloy bonding covalent to base metals of the heart. Or a baste of pure brine over poultry; that is loneliness’ taste. Its maxim of wisdom: I will never leave you, madam. There…

Authors on Audio: Paul Kix

Longtime journalist and ESPN.com deputy editor Paul Kix is also the author of two books, The Saboteur: The Aristocrat Who Became France’s Most Daring Anti-Nazi Commando and now You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America. Publishers Weekly…

Meet Ann Beattie

Onlookers is an astute new story collection about people living in the same Southern town whose lives intersect in surprising ways. Peaceful Charlottesville, Virginia, drew national attention when white nationalists held a rally there in 2017, a horrific event whose repercussions are still felt today. Confederate monuments such as General…

An Interview with Pamela Petro

Pamela Petro grew up in New Jersey but never found a home until she stumbled upon Wales. Her arrival was accidental; she’d learned about a unique graduate program there in word-and-image studies snuggled in a small town amid sheep-dotted hills. Her previous books include Travels in an Old Tongue, in…

Jesse Rifkin in Conversation with J.M. Giordano

The Ivy presents an evening with Jesse Rifkin, author of This Must Be the Place, a fascinating history that examines how real estate, gentrification, community, and the highs and lows of New York City itself shaped the city’s music scenes from folk to house music. Baltimore photojournalist J.M. Giordano will…

Oppenheimer’s Tragedy Turns into a Triumph

The story of Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and the biography of Robert Oppenheimer they co-authored, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, is well known to Washington, DC, readers. That Pulitzer Prize-winning biography has now been turned into the summer blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer,” which is…

Authors on Audio: Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos

Journalist and historian Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos is also the author of two books about the world of pirates. The first, The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth-Century Pirates’ Wives, Families and Communities, came out in 2017. Her new volume is The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of…

An Interview with David Winner

After novelist David Winner moved to New York in the late 1980s, he spent Friday nights visiting his great-aunt Dorle in her lavish Midtown apartment. Over cocktails and cigarettes, Dorle regaled him with tales from her storied past. As a publicist for the New York Philharmonic and, later, a co-founder…

Meet Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams

Loyalty is so excited to celebrate Fit for the Gods for a virtual event with co-editors Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams and contributors Marika Bailey, Sarah Gailey, and Maya Deane! This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast. Click here to register for the event. You can also order…

We Are All Animals

We humans take a lot of pride in enumerating the ways in which we’re different from other animals. TV shows like “Love Is Blind” run off the idea that our physical attributes are less important than our emotional connections — a lovely thought that ignores the fact that most of…

Tales of the Unexpected

Being somewhat new to the DMV — having moved here a few years ago after living for many years outside of Philadelphia — I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when it came to its literary or publishing world, but it has quickly become one of my favorite places. Since…

Brando Skyhorse in Conversation with Lisa Page

Iris Prince is starting over. After years of drifting apart, she and her husband are going through a surprisingly drama-free divorce. She's moved to a new house in a new neighborhood, and has plans for gardening, coffee clubs, and spending more time with her 9-year-old daughter Melanie. It feels like…

Statuary Thrall

Oslo’s long daylight fooled my internal clock; I stayed up unusually late reading. My husband, Harry, went exploring and texted back a picture of a statue: novelist Sigrid Undset. The next day, we visited Undset (1882-1949). She stands in Stensparken, the neighborhood park near where she spent her youth. Alone…

Authors on Audio: Rebecca Boggs Roberts

A longtime journalist and current deputy director of events at the Library of Congress, Rebecca Boggs Roberts is also the author of multiple books, including Suffragists in Washington, DC: The 1913 Parade and the Fight for the Vote and The Suffragist Playbook: Your Guide to Changing the World. Her new…

An Interview with Lucienne S. Bloch

Lucienne S. Bloch, the author of two novels, On the Great-Circle Route and Finders Keepers, tackles a different genre in her new book, Whistling in the Dark, crafting a series of rich, lyrical essays about everything from growing up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in the 1950s as the daughter…

Roger Reeves in Conversation with Martha S. Jones

Loyalty is so excited to welcome Roger Reeves and Martha S. Jones for an IN-PERSON event celebrating the release of his debut nonfiction, Dark Days! Join us at Loyalty's Petworth store for a wonderful discussion, followed by a meet & greet and book-signing! This event is free to attend but…

Children’s Book Roundup: August 2023

The Truth about Max by Alice and Martin Provensen (Enchanted Lion Books). Are cats loving, mischievous, aloof, cuddly, imperious, clingy, or distant? Yes! They’re all those things, which is what makes Max so irresistible. He is a “mighty hunter” who surveys his kingdom — okay, the farm where he lives…

A Patriotic Pick: August 2023

Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by David O. Stewart, author of George Washington: The Political Rise of America’s Founding Father and a member of the Independent’s board of directors: The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait…

Christopher Miller in Conversation with Linda Kinstler

When President Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine, he unleashed a terror which struck at the very heart of Europe and broke the world order that had been in place since the fall of the Soviet Union. Financial Times reporter Christopher Miller has been embedded in Ukraine for 13…

Authors on Audio: RJ Smith

Along with being a senior editor at Los Angeles Magazine and a columnist for the Village Voice, RJ Smith is also the author of The One: The Life and Music of James Brown and now Chuck Berry: An American Life. The Wall Street Journal calls the latter an “unsparing but…

James McBride in Conversation with Jason Reynolds

All books will be pre-signed by the author. A book signing line will follow the event for those who would like their book personalized. Recipient of the National Book Award and a National Humanities Medal, James McBride brings his signature hope, humor, and humanity to his new novel, The Heaven…

An Interview with Miriam E. Hiebert

As a former English major, I have no idea what electrons do. Or protons, for that matter. My tangles with science classes stopped at Oceanography 101 (which I somehow thought would involve watching Jacques Cousteau documentaries for a whole semester). So, I approached Miriam E. Hiebert’s The Uranium Club: Unearthing…

Meet Megan Barnard

Join us as we celebrate Megan Barnard’s thrilling lyrical debut, Jezebel. With a bold voice reminiscent of Madeline Miller’s Circe, Jezebel is a stunning reimagining of the story of a fierce princess from Tyre and her infamous legacy. This event is free and open to the public. Presented in partnership…

A Column Is Born

I like small. Handcrafted. Indie. I always have. And that goes for presses, too. I’m not talking about self-publishing or hybrid-publishing operations. And I’m definitely not talking about major publishing houses. (Although I have nothing against them. My two YA novels — Before My Eyes and LIE — were put…

Romance Roundup: August 2023

I’m off to the beach this month and cannot wait! Of course, it’s a little bittersweet, too, because I scheduled this trip for the end of summer, and that means summer is almost over. Time is funny, isn’t it? We spend months looking forward to something, only to have it…

Ghosts & Spirits: A Resurrected Asian American Lit Fest Event

Kat Chow, Chantal Tseng, Eric Shu-Pao Wang, and the AALF Collective in partnership with Loyalty Bookstores hope you will join us for an evening reading series on the theme of ghosts from Asian American authors local and international in town for the Asian American Literature Festival. Some nonsense may be…

Feels Like the First Time

I’m going through a phase of revisiting old books, movies, and television shows. At my age, I enjoy new phases. I mean, how many do I have left? Anyway, the old movies are self-explanatory. Many of them were extremely well-made, especially since actors and directors, working under a strict morality…

Authors on Audio: Peter Cozzens

Historian and former U.S. Foreign Service officer Peter Cozzens is also the author of multiple books, including Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign, The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth, and The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga. His new work, which completes…

Our 7 Most Favorable Reviews in July 2023

The Pain of Pleasure: A Novel by Amy Grace Loyd (Roundabout Press). Reviewed by Chris Rutledge. “Central to the story are the good Dr. Berger, proprietor of a renowned clinic for migraine sufferers; Mrs. Watson, his patron, loyal supporter, and foil; and Ruth, a nurse with secrets whom Mrs. Watson…

Our 5 Most Popular Posts: July 2023

Paul D. Pearlstein’s review of The Winning Ticket: Uncovering America’s Biggest Lottery Scam by Rob Sand with Reid Forgrave (Potomac Books). “Tipton was soon charged for buying the ticket and for lying to investigators. Despite his legal jeopardy, he refused to explain how — or if — he was able…

The Strays: Donald Berger, Aeon Ginsberg, and Steven Leyva

The Strays series from Foundlings Press is a biannual release of chapbook “packs” featuring three short manuscripts by three poets. Over the years, the press had encountered many poets who had “stray” poems: notes, experiments, scraps cut from longer manuscripts, or odd sequences too short for a book but too…

Poetry Reading with Irène Mathieu & Kyle Dargan

Bards Alley is happy to welcome poet, author, and healer Irène Mathieu for the launch of her newest poetry collection, Milk Tongue. She will be in discussion with another local poet, Kyle Dargan, and one of the Bards Alley booksellers. We encourage you to order Milk Tongue ahead of time…

On Poetry: July 2023

I greet you all from the desert Southwest, where we’re entering our fourth week of triple-digit temperatures in what I’ve been assured is the last coolest summer I’ll ever have. I find myself studying the clouds along with novelist/poet/artist Leslie Marmon Silko in her memoir, The Turquoise Ledge, a book…

Authors on Audio: S.C. Gwynne

Longtime journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist S.C. Gwynne is also the author of several books, including Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History; Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of…

An Interview with Mary Kay Zuravleff

“Where I was born isn’t how I was raised. Though I hailed from Marianna, Pennsylvania, I was brought up hearing that wolves talk and Old Believers rise from the dead. That a good woman can make soup from a stone, and a good man’s snot is black with coal dust.”…

Ruth Madievsky in Conversation with Nicole Chung

Loyalty is thrilled to welcome Ruth Madievsky and Nicole Chung for a virtual event celebrating the release of All-Night Pharmacy! This event is free to attend and will be held digitally via Crowdcast. Click here to register for the event. You can also order a copy of the book below…

Dubious Choices

My initial introduction to Joris-Karl Huysmans’ Against Nature (1884) came years ago through Camille Paglia’s Delta-Force-of-literary-theory, Sexual Personae. In Paglia’s survey of Western literature, the section on Against Nature bore her unique and sometimes audacious rapid-fire interpretations: The main character in Against Nature, Jean Des Esseintes, she writes, “withdraws into…

I Am the Culture

If you look at the mission statement of the DMV Renaissance Awards, you’ll find words that echo what it means to be a poet during this time: “WE ARE THE CULTURE.” I truly feel the experience in the Washington, DC, area has been about culture and cultural diversity. The nation’s…

Rachel Cantor in Conversation with Aaron Hamburger

How did sisters Emily, Charlotte, and Anne write literary landmarks Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey? What in their lives and circumstances, in the choices they made, and in their close but complex relationships with one another made such greatness possible? In her new novel, Rachel Cantor melds biographical…

Graphically Gallic

In the Loire Valley, in the vibrant city of Tours, there’s a gem of an independent bookstore called Bédélire. As the name suggests, it specializes in “bandes dessinées,” or BD. English speakers know this genre as graphic novels, but the term doesn’t quite capture the full complexity and history of…

Authors on Audio: Jerry Izenberg

A legendary longtime sports reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger and a member of the Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame, and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Jerry Izenberg is also the author of multiple books, including Once There…

Meet Wendy Wan-Long Shang

Join us to celebrate the release of Wendy Wan-Long Shang's latest middle-grade novel, Bubble Trouble! About the book: How many problems can a delicious cup of bubble tea cause? Plenty, if you’re Chloe Chen. For starters, Chloe wants to go on the class trip to Broadway — an expense Chloe’s…

An Interview with Charles Foran

Charles Foran is the author of 12 books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling biography of Mordecai Richler, Mordecai: The Life & Times, and the novel Planet Lolita. His work has won major literary awards, including the Hilary Weston Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Taylor Prize,…

Children’s Book Roundup: July 2023

You, Me, We: A Celebration of Peace and Community by Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus (authors) and Andrés Landazábal (illustrator) (Candlewick). “Peace is in a gentle shake. Peace isn’t order for order’s sake. Peace is in returning things to their proper place. Peace isn’t something that can break.” All day…

Meet Falisa Ray

It's time to peel back the curtain for this stellar book discussion featuring Falisa Ray. Falisa is the author of the new book Raising Simba, which details her journey of taking herself and her son from the Chicago projects to helping him land the lead role of Simba in “The…

A Patriotic Pick: July 2023

Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by Jennifer Bort Yacovissi, author of Up the Hill to Home and president of the Independent: Votes for Women!: American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot by Winifred Conkling. “Conkling’s…

Style Is Character

The fashion world — like the art world, like the publishing world — no doubt has its slimy aspect. As with every commercial artform, success involves luck, pluck, connections, and, in fashion’s case, the seasonal pressure to reinvent the waistcoat, the pantleg, the heel. Oscar Wilde famously said, “A fashion…

Change Is Here to Stay

As Kakuzo Okakura expressed in The Book of Tea, “The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.” If there was ever a time this was true, it’s now. When we put Fall for the Book online three years ago, we imagined it’d be an Ace bandage…

Jake Tapper in Conversation with Kristen Welker

All books will be pre-signed by the author. A book signing will follow the event for those who would like their book personalized. CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper takes us back to one of the wildest and most dangerous decades in American history in All the Demons…

An Interview with Paul Goldberg

Introducing Paul Goldberg at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC, recently during the launch of Goldberg’s latest novel, The Dissident, moderator Andrew Weiss described the book as being “like a Coen Brothers directing of a Bond film.” He was serious. How else to describe a story that follows a ragtag…

Karyn Parsons in Conversation with Keiana Mayfield

East City Bookshop welcomes Karyn Parsons for a discussion of her book, Clouds Over California, in conversation with ECB's Diversity in KidLit Advocate, Keiana Mayfield. Click here to register for this event via Eventbrite. Covid-19 Information: Please note that East City Bookshop continuously monitors public health guidance to ensure the…

Romance Roundup: July 2023

Whew, it’s hot in Virginia, even for July. Between the wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada (poor Canada) and temps in the 90s, I haven’t been keen on spending much time outside. (Even my dogs agree, though they’re not happy about the rabbits and squirrels taking over the yard.) While…

Birds of a Feather

Question: How do you pull off a comic post-apocalyptic novel narrated by a talking crow? Answer: Brilliant writing. Kira Jane Buxton’s Hollow Kingdom somehow succeeds, and the 2019 novel was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. As Independent reviewer Josh Denslow noted when the book came out,…

Authors on Audio: James B. Conroy

A former Naval Air reservist, speechwriter, and press secretary, longtime attorney James B. Conroy is also the award-winning author of multiple books, including Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 1865 and Jefferson’s White House: Monticello on the Potomac. His new work is The…

27 Uniquely American Tales

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. Over 100 years old, this book’s timeless themes — encompassing what feels like the whole of the human condition in small-town America — resonate yet today. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Following the life of Milkman, this well-known novel surveys nearly a century of…

Our 7 Most Favorable Reviews in June 2023

Like the Appearance of Horses: A Novel by Andrew Krivak (Bellevue Literary Press). Reviewed by Marilyn Oser. “This pattern of leaving the land; of experiencing danger, trauma, and imprisonment of one kind or another; and of eventually returning to the same place but a different reality — this death and…

Carrying the World in Our Hands

A day before I started writing this column, focused on Amanda Gorman’s transcendent Call Us What We Carry, the poetry collection suddenly collided with current events in an unwelcome way. A recent complaint from one parent in a Florida school district means the poem Gorman recited at President Biden’s 2020…

Our 5 Most Popular Posts: June 2023

“Romance Roundup: June 2023” by Kristina Wright. “It’s SUMMER! Okay, so I have a job and don’t get summers off, but I still look forward to the warmer months like I did when I was a kid. Everything is just…easier, you know? No lunches to pack, no homework to check,…

B.K. Borison in Conversation with Chloe Liese

Loyalty is so excited to welcome B.K. Borison and Chloe Liese for an IN-PERSON event celebrating the release of In the Weeds, the second book in the Lovelight Farms series! Join us for an author discussion + audience Q&A, followed by a meet & greet and book-signing! This event is…

On Second Thought

This is not quite the column I planned. As intended, it’s about revision, but it’s somewhat revised. The topic is on my writing mind these days as I work through another draft of a novel in progress. I dread revision. A few authors claim not to do it. That’s hard…

M.E. O’Brien in Conversation with Lara Sheehi and helen DeVinney

In Family Abolition, author M.E. O’Brien uncovers the history of struggles to create radical alternatives to the private family. From early Marxists to Black and queer insurrectionists to today’s mass-protest movements, O’Brien finds revolutionaries seeking better ways of loving, caring, and living. Dean Spade says Family Abolition is “an immensely…

Authors on Audio: Chad L. Williams

The Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Brandeis University, Chad L. Williams is also the author of Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era and co-editor of Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence…

An Interview with Sandra Worth

Sandra Worth’s most recent novel, Tomorrow We Will Know, is an epic situated during the fall of Imperial Constantinople and told through the romance between Emperor Constantine and Zoe, the daughter of his grand duke. Navigating this tumultuous period and the personal stories of three main characters, Worth weaves a…

I.S. Berry in Conversation with Lindsay Moran

Join Charm City Books at Baltimore Spirits Company for a special event with author I.S. Berry in conversation with fellow former CIA operations officer and bestselling author Lindsay Moran (Blowing My Cover), to celebrate Berry’s debut novel, The Peacock and the Sparrow. The evening will be moderated by Washington Post…

Attraction and Abandon(ment)

Wendy Guerra writes of exile and of home in such a way that the two concepts become one and the same. Native to Cuba, where she achieved prominence as an actress and television personality, Guerra — who apparently still maintains an apartment in Havana — is now based in Miami.…

Cultural Bridge-Building

In a 1994 interview, Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe described how Igbo elders should be greeted. According to tradition, one should approach the elder, shake hands, and call him by his chosen, titled name. But, as Achebe explained, in the face of large assemblies, this is not practical. As a result,…

Authors on Audio: Eli Cranor

A onetime college football player and now a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and CrimeReads, Eli Cranor is also the Edgar Award-winning author of Don’t Know Tough, his debut novel. Cranor’s sophomore effort is Ozark Dogs, which the Financial Times calls “a gritty, authentic triumph, one howling to be turned…

A Conversation with Rachel Louise Snyder

Rachel Louise Snyder, whose seminal work on domestic violence, No Visible Bruises, was 10 years in the making, says she carried her new memoir, Women We Buried, Women We Burned, inside her for four decades. It tells a story of loss, familial abuse, survival, and, ultimately, forgiveness. Snyder, a 2020-2021…

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu in Conversation with Roxane Gay

Join Loyalty Bookstores and DC Public Library for a live, in-person event with Ani Kayode Somtochukwu and Roxane Gay to celebrate the release of And Then He Sang a Lullaby! This event will take place at DCPL's MLK Library location. **This event is free to attend, but registration is encouraged…

Cultivating Connections

The summer after I graduated high school in the small Great Lakes town of Huron, Ohio, I’d engineered a summer job in Manhattan as a mail clerk for a large Wall Street brokerage house. At 18, I had a vague idea I wanted to become a stockbroker. As a going-away…

David Santos Donaldson in Conversation with Reggie Bailey

In 1919, Mohammed el Adl, the young Egyptian lover of British author E.M. Forster, spent six months in a jail cell. A century later, Kip Starling has locked himself in his Brooklyn basement study with a pistol and 21 gallons of Poland Spring to write Mohammed’s story. Kip has only…

On Poetry: June 2023

Poetry frequently draws upon myth, folklore, and archetypes, but the narrative poem often lives in this self-referential sphere of story through the lens of story. I find the best narrative poets who employ this type of meta-narrative are doing the work of interrogating other stories, creating a tonal and subject…

Say Anything*

I just sat through an interesting webinar devoted to the freelance-editing process. There was a Q/A button that allowed viewers to ask questions of either the moderator or her guest, who was a freelance editor. Much of the hour-long session dealt with the differences among line editing, copyediting, story crafting,…

An Anthology Is Born

The Writers Group of Leisure World — a vast, 55+ community outside of Washington, DC, in Silver Spring, Maryland — recently self-published its second anthology, The Restless Pen: A Gift from an Ageless Generation, an assemblage of 172 original pieces from 15 contributors. The selections, though all very different, have…

A Conversation with Michelle Brafman

Michelle Brafman’s Swimming with Ghosts explores the inner workings of a Northern Virginia swim club, focusing mostly on a group of team moms and best friends with (depending on how you look at it) too much or not enough time on their hands. It’s also a story about addiction in…

Christina Vo in Conversation with Thuy Dinh

January 2021, mid-pandemic, Christina Vo — single, childless, and in her early 40s — sets off on a road trip with a close friend in search of a new place to call home. What ensues is an illuminating spiritual journey that finally allows her to make peace with the painful…

Remembering Tom Glenn

Tom Glenn had so many sides, lived so many lives, acquired so many talents, and shared them so generously that a fictional character based on him would strain credulity: polymath, linguist, musician, intelligence analyst, cryptologist, novelist, power lifter, leadership consultant, educator, and, for a dozen years, a counselor for the…

Children’s Book Roundup: June 2023

Sora’s Seashells by Helena Ku Rhee (author) and Stella Lim and Ji-Hyuk Kim (illustrators) (Candlewick). “Sora’s grandmother, Halmoni, visited from far away every summer. The day after she arrived, they took the bus to the beach, where they combed the shore for seashells together.” Neither realizes that this will be…

Meet Kai Rush

After 22 years of teaching all types of students, Dr. Kai Rush, a teacher/professor turned author, has compiled a book to help students battle the BIG, UGLY beasts of procrastination, test-taking strategies, goal setting and academic success planning. Instead of a boring old lecture or textbook, this book is teaching…

A Patriotic Pick: June 2023

Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by Grateful American™ Book Prize judge Dr. Douglas Bradburn, president and CEO of George Washington’s Mount Vernon: The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff. “Although Adams was perhaps more critical to…

Authors on Audio: Evan Thomas

A former longtime writer and editor at Time and Newsweek, as well as a professor of journalism, Evan Thomas is also the author of multiple books, including the bestsellers John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy, Being Nixon: A Man Divided, and First: Sandra Day O’Connor. His…

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah in Conversation with Clint Smith

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular, highly controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize:…

An Interview with Kevin Naff

June may be Pride Month, but award-winning journalist Kevin Naff reports on LGBTQ+ issues year-round. In his role as longtime editor of the Washington Blade, he’s been covering the gay community both in Washington, DC, and across the globe for more than 20 years. As he lays out in his…

A Critical Success

In 2020, two months after the murder of George Floyd, I attended an online panel of four distinguished book critics, during which it was suggested that in order to be published in mainstream publications, a reviewer needed to act like a white man. I was shocked, not because they actually…

John West in Conversation with Sandra Beasley

East City Bookshop welcomes John West for a discussion of his memoir, Lessons and Carols. Joining him in conversation is Sandra Beasley. Click here to register for this event via Eventbrite. Note on Format: This hybrid event will have both an in-person component with limited seating as well as a…

Romance Roundup: June 2023

It’s SUMMER! Okay, so I have a job and don’t get summers off, but I still look forward to the warmer months like I did when I was a kid. Everything is just…easier, you know? No lunches to pack, no homework to check, less stress about bedtimes and schedules (and…

Our 7 Most Favorable Reviews in May 2023

Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature by Sarah Hart (Flatiron Books). Reviewed by John P. Loonam. “In high school, I learned that the world is divided in half: Some of us are math and science people, and some of us are humanities people. I look…

Our 5 Most Popular Posts: May 2023

Tom Glenn’s review of No Human Contact: Solitary Confinement, Maximum Security, and Two Inmates Who Changed the System by Pete Earley (Citadel Press). “Earley makes no attempt to prettify prison life. He describes matter-of-factly the ways in which the men around Silverstein and Fountain brutalized one another. Castration and rape…

Moscow on My Mind

Maybe it was reading The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald. Or my recent correspondence with a Russian-to-English translator. But Moscow — as I knew it 30 years ago, when my husband and I, together with our three children, lived there on diplomatic assignment — has been on my mind.…

Authors on Audio: Ashley Brown

An assistant professor and the Allan H. Selig Chair in Sport and Society in U.S. History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ashley Brown is also the author of Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson. Booklist calls the new work “a monumental, comprehensive biography that blends Gibson’s remarkable…

An Interview with Mary Collins

For more than 25 years, Mary Collins has been both an author and a writing instructor, previously at Johns Hopkins’ M.A. in Writing program (where I was her student), and now at Central Connecticut State University and Yale. In an earlier book, American Idle: A Journey Through Our Sedentary Culture,…

OMP After Hours: Summer Browsing and Wine Tasting!

We're excited to host an after-hours shopping and wine tasting to kick off the summer! Our wine buyer (and bookseller), Rosie, is selecting several great wines for the summer and will be on hand to discuss them as you browse. Registration is limited, and tickets ($5) are required for EACH…

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